Statistical review: a historic Men's Club World Championship in numbers

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Volleyball04/12/2018

Statistical review: a historic Men's Club World Championship in numbers

Diatecx Trentino claimed victory against Cucine Lube Civitanova in the final of the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship

Czestochowa, Poland, December 4, 2018 - All-time duration records were shattered left right and centre this year at the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship as well-balanced teams played some long, exciting and sometimes tense rallies on the road to glory with Diatecx Trentino eventually triumphing over Cucine Lube Civitanova in the all-Italian final.

Simone Giannelli combines with Srecko Lisinac as Trentino triumph over Lube in the all-Italian final of the 2018 FIVB Men's Club World Championship.

The duration record of the longest match in the history of the competition (since the introduction of the rally scoring system) fell not once, not twice, but three times in the course of this year's competition - actually twice within a day.

The record going into the 2018 edition stood at 2 hours 21 minutes from the Trentino Diatec v UPCN San Juan match of 2014 (3-2).

But on the opening day in Plock Fakel Novy Urengoy beat Zenit Kazan 3-2 in 2:23 in the Russian derby of Pool A. The very next day, also in Plock, Lube beat Kazan 3-2 in 2:25. And a little later that same day Fakel edged hosts PGE Skra Belchatow 3-2 in 2:40.

These last two matches also set a new duration for longest tie-breaks in the history of the Club World Championship, each lasting 30 minutes. The previous high had been 23 minutes in matches from 2009, 2011 and 2012.

And at 248 in total, the Fakel v Skra game is the new all-time highest scoring match, beating the previous high of 243 points from the Trentino v UPCN clash of 2014.

Artur Udrys of Fakel Novy Urengoy tries to beat the PGE Skra Belchatow block of Mariusz Wlazly and Jakub Kochanowski in the longest match in the history of the FIVB Men's Club World Championship.

Meanwhile, Artur Udrys of Russia's Fakel Novy Urengoy added his name to the list of top scorers in this year's edition. The 28-year-old Belarus opposite amassed a total of 81 points across the five matches he played in Poland.

This is still quite short of the all-time record of 118, set by Bartosz Kurek of PGE Skra Belchatow in 2009, the first year the Club World Championships were played under the rally scoring system.

Tsvetan Sokolov, playing this year for Cucine Lube Civitanova, remains the only player to feature on the list more than once. He was top scorer in 2013 in Betim while playing for Trentino Diatec and again last year in Poland with Lube.

This year, the 28-year-old Bulgarian opposite scored 78 points - just three short of Udrys.

And again, for now the fifth year running, no player in a single game managed to break the 30-point mark. The best any player could do was just 28 points by Egor Kliuka of Fakel Novy Urengoy in their match against PGE Skra Belchatow (3-2) in pool play at Plock.

The last player to make the 'Over 30s' list was Tsvetan Sokolov, then playing for Diatec Trentino, who scored 33 points against Argentina's UPCN San Juan in 2013. This also remains the joint all-time best, alongside Bartosz Kurek's 33 for PGE Skra Belchatow in 2009 against Brazil's Cimed Florianopolis.

In other skills, Diatecx Trentino's Aaron Russell, the tournament's MVP, was the most efficient scorer amongst the top four teams. The 25-year-old American managed 62 kills from 104 swings for 59.62% efficiency.

The all-time best in attacking belongs to Brazilan Jose Santos, with 68.35% (54/79) in 2013 for Argentina's UPCN San Juan.

Top blocker this year in Poland was Lube's Robertlandy Simon with 15 stuffs and an average per set of .75. Kevin Le Roux of Sada Cruzeiro Contagem also finished on a .75 average, with a total of 9 stuffs before his club bowed out early.

The best all-time blocker in the history of the FIVB Club World Championships remains Argentina's Sebastian Sole with 1.45 per set (16 stuffs in five matches) for Diatec Trentino in 2014.

And Resovia's Thibault Rossard this year served 12 aces in five matches for Asseco Resovia Rzeszow, averaging .63 per set. The 25-year-old French international, however, came short of the all-time record of .68 (13 aces) by Robertlandy Simon from 2014 while playing for Qatar's Al-Rayyan.

This year playing for Lube, Simon served nine aces for a .45 average and sits in fifth place in the relative rankings.